Quick-action rolling shutter doors are used for closing openings in the walls of warehouses or factory buildings. Here, it is very important that the quick-action rolling shutter door can be opened and closed fast, only leaving the opening in the wall open for the actual passage of a person or a vehicle there-through. This will, on the one hand, restrict any loss of energy from heated or cooled rooms, and, on the other hand, protect the environment by keeping escaping noise, odors and dust emissions to a minimum.
From practical applications, two types of quick-action rolling shutter door are known. A first type of quick-action rolling shutter door, usually referred to as sectional door, uses rigid door elements which are guided on their sides and, when opened, assume a position parallel to a building wall or ceiling. Said door elements generally include a frame with plural filling inserts of a sandwich construction, similar to the kind used in window or door systems. The K-value of said doors which is between 1.0 to 1.4 can in itself be regarded as good from an energy saving point of view. What is disadvantageous about these doors, however, are their low opening and closing speeds and the high technical effort, amongst other things due to the problems involved in foam-filling the filling inserts with construction material. This construction is not only very problematic when it comes to recycling, but does not afford sufficient protection from burglary, either, since the filling inserts do not offer any resistance.
Another type of quick-action rolling shutter door which is known from practice as the so called hanging or curtain door, uses a thin-walled plastic tarpaulin which is guided on the sides and can be wound up onto a roller. The high opening and closing speeds of this type of quick-action rolling shutter door are obtained at the expense of insufficient thermal insulation, with K-values ranging from 4.0 to 5.75, as well as insufficient safety from burglary.
Both types of quick-action rolling shutter door have disadvantages in relation to heat insulation. The disadvantage of sectional doors in this respect is the formation of cold bridges in the region of the joints interconnecting the individual door elements. The insufficient heat insulation of hanging doors is due to the insufficient insulation properties of the material of the hanging.
Another disadvantage of the prior art quick-action rolling shutter doors is the labor-intensive repair of collision damage. With both types of quick-action rolling shutter door, due to the prior art guiding devices used in them, maintenance work is only possible in the raised, opened state. What makes this shortcoming especially serious is the fact that collisions of vehicles and quick-action rolling shutter door hangings or door elements occur very frequently with quick-action rolling shutter doors. Another disadvantage of the prior art types of quick-action rolling shutter door resides in their insufficient safety from burglary, as already mentioned.